Garden bus tours to show ‘green’ developments, cultural changes in Buffalo; register now

See the rooftop garden at the Broadway Market on both the East Side Momentum and Buffalo Beyond Flowers bus tours. Photo Courtesy Jim CharlierThe garden at the Buddhist community center can be seen on the East Side Momentum tour. Photo courtesy Jim Charlier

These are public places that you could visit on your own, but what’s great about these tours is that you get to speak to people involved in the projects so you get interesting information, said Mary Van Vorst, one of the organizers of the Beyond Flowers tour.

You can make reservations now. See details below.

East Side Momentum and Buffalo Beyond Flowers are bus tours of Gardens Buffalo Niagara, the organization that promotes and/or plans regional garden tours, Tours of Open Gardens, the Buffalo-style garden Art Sale and Garden Walk Buffalo, America’s largest garden tour.

This tour highlights seven strong environment-friendly approaches to projects. The projects include neighborhood rain gardens and the bio-retention cell on the Medical Campus that are helping divert rain water from the sewer system, the community-based rooftop garden above the historic Broadway market, a million-dollar project on Lake Erie, the ecological land revival at the Central Terminal and reclaimed residential sites that now feature urban farms. See what is happening and personally meet each site leader.

On this tour you’ll visit six sites that reveal firsthand the changing cultural presence of this diverse section of the city. Unrelated as the various neighborhoods of the city’s East Side are, they continually exhibit enthusiasm and resourcefulness. Hear the project leaders each tell their story.

Enjoy the Buddhist community center garden developed by new immigrants. View the family-operated Wilson Street Farm and the Pelion Community Garden at City Honors School, which serve their local neighborhoods in distinctly different ways. Touch base with the Farmer Pirates who foster urban farming and learn how the community-based rooftop garden above the historic Broadway market has resolved numerous challenges. Meet the None Like You/We Care community group, started by a group of far-seeing women, which functions to tie neighbors together and to provide educational opportunities.